Okay, so I'd started doing this YEARS ago, before being told that Palladium would TOTALLY attempt a Cease & Desist if I posted it. Ares has said that he's open to anyone posting anything about conversions here, so the Hell with it.

So... as you can see, I basically ignored MDC and Mega Damage entirely, because it's annoying and dumb, and doesn't really fit M&M aside from some arbitrary adding of Impervious/Penetrating to literally EVERYTHING. Plus, the levels of things are insane- if I recall right, the main rulebook indicates that a full broadside from a 20th Century BATTLESHIP is equivalent to the routine output of some handheld rifles on Rifts Earth. That's like everyone carrying around Blast 18-20 weapons as basic gear; never mind the stuff Glitter Boys carry around.

Yeah, the Mega-Damage System in Rifts made sense to me as a teenager (well of course a tank has MDC compared to the SDC of a pistol), but I think that was the point: this game was designed to appeal to teenagers at their most power-geeky. To this day I love the Rifts SETTING, it's gonzo fun, but the system is an unholy mess.

The system is, of course, notorious for its constant escalation, with things getting thousands of MDC and guns that would vaporize humans and battle tanks. Even the Glitter Boy's Boom Gun (which was suppose to be one of the most powerful weapons on the planet) got less and less impressive as time went on. Granted, the insane dice values didn't help either, where you could wind up doing between 10 and 180 damage depending on the dice roll.

Rifts. A prime example of a fun setting almost ruined by its creators and a horrible system. From what I've seen, the Savage Worlds version is a much more playable and enjoyable take on the franchise, at least system wise. It's prime real-estate for a M&M conversion.

Palladium actually relented, slightly, on their draconian lockdown policy and licensed a Savage Worlds version of RIFTS. It’s actually a very well-done adaptation of the original game’s themes and tone (survival in a post-post-apocalypse world) with some nods to the over-the-top sensibilities the gameline picked up over time (big ass guns for everyone!).

For decades, the long-standing joke was that Rifts was the “most popular game no one actually played.” But pairing the Rifts setting with the Savage Worlds engine works very, very well.

Yeah, the Mega-Damage System in Rifts made sense to me as a teenager (well of course a tank has MDC compared to the SDC of a pistol), but I think that was the point: this game was designed to appeal to teenagers at their most power-geeky. To this day I love the Rifts SETTING, it's gonzo fun, but the system is an unholy mess.

The system is, of course, notorious for its constant escalation, with things getting thousands of MDC and guns that would vaporize humans and battle tanks. Even the Glitter Boy's Boom Gun (which was suppose to be one of the most powerful weapons on the planet) got less and less impressive as time went on. Granted, the insane dice values didn't help either, where you could wind up doing between 10 and 180 damage depending on the dice roll.

Rifts. A prime example of a fun setting almost ruined by its creators and a horrible system. From what I've seen, the Savage Worlds version is a much more playable and enjoyable take on the franchise, at least system wise. It's prime real-estate for a M&M conversion.

Mekton Z used a similar concept called Kills to simulate the fact that vehicles and characters operates on two different scales of damage. The trick, although was that normal guns could be "Kill-capable" allowing human to take down mechas with the right hardware.

Yeah, the Mega-Damage System in Rifts made sense to me as a teenager (well of course a tank has MDC compared to the SDC of a pistol), but I think that was the point: this game was designed to appeal to teenagers at their most power-geeky. To this day I love the Rifts SETTING, it's gonzo fun, but the system is an unholy mess.

The system is, of course, notorious for its constant escalation, with things getting thousands of MDC and guns that would vaporize humans and battle tanks. Even the Glitter Boy's Boom Gun (which was suppose to be one of the most powerful weapons on the planet) got less and less impressive as time went on. Granted, the insane dice values didn't help either, where you could wind up doing between 10 and 180 damage depending on the dice roll.

Rifts. A prime example of a fun setting almost ruined by its creators and a horrible system. From what I've seen, the Savage Worlds version is a much more playable and enjoyable take on the franchise, at least system wise. It's prime real-estate for a M&M conversion.

Mekton Z used a similar concept called Kills to simulate the fact that vehicles and characters operates on two different scales of damage. The trick, although was that normal guns could be "Kill-capable" allowing human to take down mechas with the right hardware.

The WEG Star Wars system had different "scales" of damage as well. I believe it went something akin to "Blaster / Speeder / Starfighter / Capital Ship", where basically you'd receive penalties to your Resistance check based on the size of the damage coming your way. This was to keep Wookies from being able to just stand out in the open and tank hits from a TIE Fighter. Meanwhile, someone trying to take out a Capital Ship with a blaster pistol was doomed to failure.

So basically, there were systems that did the kind of thing MDC was attempting to do way better than Rifts.

Human, Speeder, Walker, Starfighter, Capital, and Death Star were the scales

the basic rules were each scale above was a +2 to be hit since the thing was generally larger and slower thus easier to hit but it received a +2 to resist the attack since it was larger and tougher

Conversely each scale above received a -2 to hit a lesser scake because smaller faster dodgier, but a +2 to damage since a bazooka swatting a mosquito could get pretty messy.

the speeder scene in hoth is a prime example where the speeders were easily able to hit the slower lumbering walkers Speeder scale +2 to hit Walker scale but the ATATs heavier armor made them all but invulnerable to the speeders weapons

the walkershad a hard time hitting the speeders but when they did BOOM was the result.

The speeders had to rely on a trick with the harpoons bringing the walkers down and exposing a weak spot which the speeders exploited ie the speeder pilots used character points to boost the damage and got a lucky role on the downed walkers.

The deathstar from ep 4 was also a prime example as the deathstar it self was impossuible for the star fighters to hurt in any ways +4 to hit but a +4 body to resist, similarly the capital scale weapons were -2 to hit the star fighters but did massive damage when they hit.

it took a force point assisted role to put a pair of torps into the vulnerable spot and begin the chain reaction.

Dr. Silverback has wryly observed that this is like trying to teach lolcats about Shakespeare

I’d eyeball the standard Glitterboy to be around PL10; The Boom Gun has great power, but isn’t remarkably accurate... +8 To Hit, Damage 12, with Multiattack and lots of Penetration; linked to a Close Burst Affliction 6 that stuns and deafens.

Incidentally, when I converted Warhammer 40,000's iconic Space Marines over to M&M3e, I put them at PL10 / 165 PP. Astartes Power Armor seems a pretty even match for RIFTS smaller robots and larger powered armors, like the Glitterboy Suit. Although the actual specifics will vary between them.

I have to admit, claims of being overpowered aside, I love the Cosmo-Knights from the Phase World setting. It's like a Green Lantern and a Herald of Galactus had a baby, and then said baby was raised by Rom: Space Knight and Thor. I even took some of the art from the book and tweaked it for my own custom Cosmo-Knight.

Personally, I would assume that Rifts characters would have stats similar to Comic Book characters: PL 8-12. HOWEVER... this is a VERY COMMON PL in the Rifts-verse, as opposed to something that's only for superhumans. So a huge portion of the population can match the PL of your PCs.

COMPLICATIONSPower Loss/Side Effect (Automatic Stabilization System): The blast of the "Boom Gun" is so powerful that without the automatic stabilization system, the Glitter Boy would be thrown to the ground and knocked back thirty feet every time it fired. The automatic stabilization system is a synchronous system of jet thrusters in the back and retractable reinforcement pylons in the lower legs that hold the armor steady and in place. The pylons and jets normally activate the moment the "Boom Gun" is fired, however if they are damaged, inoperable, or cannot be used for some reason than the Glitter Boy must either forego using his weapon or risk the side-effects.

Neato! And hey- you used the same Blast Damage I did in my concept (3D6x10 is a Boom Gun's damage, and I set that up at Blast 15).

One of the mind-blowing things about the character creation process in this game is the sheer randomness of it all. I mean, that's normal for "Roll Up Your Character" games, but some of the differences are STAGGERING. Check out the Dragons- all four have 1D4 x 100 MDC (two add 50 points to that)... imagine being the guy who rolled a 1? He literally has ONE QUARTER the Health of the top level. ALL THAT with one freaking roll of the die!!

Goddamn did the art ever improve in later games. The artists improved the Coalition Armor in particular. Kevin Long is VERY hit or miss (to be fair, he's probably working on a HELL of a time budget, given how much of his art is in this book). His Glitter Boy art STILL holds up, all these years later (SO MANY YEARS, JESUS), but his Techno-Wizards look like goofs. And OH GOD HIS BURSTER. The Dog Boys are probably the most infamous thing- I knew a guy who had a character focused around exterminating them, simply because they "look dumb" (the guy holding his Wolverine claws out all limp-wristed is probably the worst offender in that drawing, though. I still remember it like it was yesterday).

Comparing stuff against each other, even briefly, is interesting. SAMAS Suits are about half as good as Glitter Boys (Damage & MDC), except they can fly. A Dragon that rolls well is tougher than a SAMAS, but doesn't do as much damage (especially if its a GH or Thunder Dragon). But doesn't lose ammo. And has Psionics.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHH the Insanity Tables. "Why NOT annoy all your fellow gamers and demand they pay attention to you?" as a class feature.

Interesting how many classes just get "Armor", which can vary greatly in scale- is there anything stopping you from just picking the best one, short of the GM saying no?

Part of what stalls me on doing this: I know damn well I'll be compelled to stat up every Magic Spell. AND every Psychic Ability!

I never had much of a taste for Magic in any RPG- can anyone tell me what playing a Mage OCC in this game was like? They get the same Armor as other dudes to a point, so they're not as squishy as in D&D. Are the Spells that good? Are some classes WAY better than others? The Mystic one seems to be deliberately low-level.

Though it's easy to make fun... there's a lot of iconic stuff in here. Cyber-Knights (cyborg paladins with psionics!), SAMAS Suits, Dead Boys, Skelebots, Techno-Wizards, Ley Line Walkers (even their WIZARDS are totally different, with this distinctive masks), Glitter Boys, Juicers, Crazies and more. In terms of creativity, they just blasted it right out of the park in the main rulebook. No wonder this damn stupid setting has been around for so long.